Field.--This invention relates to de-boning procedures that involve preliminary grinding of meat materials from which normally inedible .[.boney.]. .Iadd.bony .Iaddend.materials, herein defined as bones, gristle, connective tissue, and the like, have not been removed.
State of the art.--There are various parts of the bodies of fowl, animals, and fish, used for food, that contain excessive amounts of bone or other .[.boney.]. .Iadd.bony .Iaddend.material--for .[.excessive amounts of bone or other boney material--for.]. example, the necks and backs of poultry--and yet contain sufficient meat, i.e. relatively soft, fleshy matter, to constitute a potential source of food if the .[.boney.]. .Iadd.bony .Iaddend.matter could be economically eliminated. Moreover, there is a large commercial market for meat proteins in slurry form as supplements for ground hamburger meat, sausage meat, etc. The poultry industry, particularly, is in need of an effective way to de-bone whole turkey and chicken carcasses, as well as inferior parts thereof, such as the necks and backs, in order to receive maximum returns from flocks raised for the domestic market.
Various ways of separating .[.boney.]. .Iadd.bony .Iaddend.components from the fleshy meat components of ground meat materials have been tried with indifferent success. Generally speaking, the processes employed have not been sufficiently positive in removing particles of bone to produce a dependable and commercially acceptable product, even though grinding the bones with the meat has posed an attractive way of quickly and easily handling the bone along with the meat and has opened up an added source of food in the form of recoverable bone marrow.